So top brass at FAMS, the FBI, and TSA all wanted to downplay the incident and keep it out of the homeland security database. But HSOC believed the case warranted reporting after an inquiry from the White House Security Council and coverage by the Washington Times–all prompted by citizen whistleblower Annie Jacobsen’s eyewitness account and investigative research.
Several questions remain: What was in that FBI ACS report about Nour Mehana’s previous suspicious behavior? Was that a test run or misinterpretation? The OIG report does not say. Because of the heavy redaction, it is also unclear whether Flight 327 was a jihadi test run. What is clear is that some federal agency officials have a bad habit of denying the obvious. What is also clear from the OIG report is that the feds remain woefully underprepared to handle jihadi test runs–let alone the real thing.

One of our most astute readers writes with a question of his own: “Why is it taking us longer than World War II to get our security services up to standard, and why shouldn’t key officials be fired for negligence and incompetence?”
To comment on this post, go here.